During the course of providing healthcare to patients, practitioners typically connect at least one type of sensor to a patient to sense, derive and otherwise monitor at least one type of patient medical parameter. These patient connected sensors are further connected to a monitoring device that includes all relevant electronic components that enable conversion, manipulation and processing of the data sensed by the at least one type of sensor in order to generate the patient medical parameter. These patient medical parameters are usable by healthcare practitioners (e.g. nurses, doctors, physician assistants, or any other person charged with providing a healthcare service to a patient) in monitoring a patient and determining a course of healthcare to be provided to the patient.
Patient monitoring devices may be selectively connected to the patients at any point during which a healthcare professional comes into contact with the patient and thus may remain connected with the patient as the patient moves through various locations within a particular healthcare enterprise (e.g. hospital) or between different healthcare enterprises (e.g. different medical facilities). Once it is determined that a patient is to remain in a fixed location, the patient monitoring devices are selectively connected (docked) to a docking station that may serve as a gateway for connecting the patient monitoring device to a hospital information system (HIS) and/or central monitoring station and allowing data representing the at least one patient medical parameter to be communicated to other systems within the healthcare enterprise. This data may then be used by different systems in further patient care.
Once docked it is imperative to ensure that the patient monitoring device remains securely connected to the docking station. Secure connection of the patient monitor with the docking station protects against inadvertent displacement or disconnection thereof resulting in injury to a patient or healthcare professional or damage to the monitor. Further, the secure connection of the patient monitoring device with the docking station maintains an electronic connection between the docking station and the various other information systems. However, it is also necessary for the patient monitoring device to be removed to allow the patient to move between various care units. A drawback associated with the locking and removal of conventional patient monitoring devices is requiring two handed operation to complete both actions. This may result in delaying the movement of the patient which may negatively impact the health of the patient. A further drawback associated with the locking and removal of convention patient monitoring devices using a two-handed release is that the healthcare professional is prevented from using the second hand for other duties because it is needed to remove and disconnect the monitoring device from the docking station. An apparatus and method of operating the apparatus according to invention principles addresses deficiencies of known docking station locking mechanisms.